Monday, August 24: We headed out in the new rental car and felt much more at home in a Jetta. This one is a beautiful metallic blue and other than the push button ignition system, we could just take this one home with us!

Our first stop of the day was to Multnomah Falls. We were hoping to avoid some of the crowds as this is the most popular spot on the Columbia River Drive. The falls are an awesome sight! We also took the trail to the foot bridge that crosses at the transition between the upper and lower falls.
Jim got some great shots of the falls. There were only a few people on the bridge when we got there … As you can see we have ways of removing people that we don’t want in our photos (and that doesn’t mean that Jim threw them over the edge!).

View from on the foot bridge

Our next stop was at the Shepherd’s Dell falls. The beautiful bridges and stone guard rails of this scenic route blended nicely with the natural features of the gorge. This stop had several cascading waterfalls viewed at different angles.

The main lower cascade

Jim shooting the smaller upper cascades

After that we took a hike to see the Bridal Veil Falls and ate lunch on the rocks above the falls. We stayed there for awhile waiting out a guy that decided to sun bathe on the large rock directly in front of the falls. Once he left Jim was able to get some great video of this spectacular waterfall.

We make a return visit to Vista House. The skies were not as hazy as yesterday so we could see the river view much better. We also stopped at the next overview spot and got some shots of the Vista House set high upon the hill.

We headed east again and after a quick stop at the camper for a snack and photo downloading we drove to the Bonneville Dam. We stopped at the Visitor Center there but arrived just 2 minutes before closing so we were just able to see the dam itself - a vary large one spanning the width of the Columbia River.